Welcome

Welcome to the POZ Community Forums, a round-the-clock discussion area for people with HIV/AIDS, their friends/family/caregivers, and
others concerned about HIV/AIDS. Click on the links below to browse our various forums; scroll down for a glance at the most recent posts; or join in the
conversation yourself by registering on the left side of this page.

Privacy Warning: Please realize that these forums are open to all, and are fully searchable via Google and other search engines. If you are HIV positive
and disclose this in our forums, then it is almost the same thing as telling the whole world (or at least the World Wide Web). If this concerns you, then do not use a
username or avatar that are self-identifying in any way. We do not allow the deletion of anything you post in these forums, so think before you post.

The information shared in these forums, by moderators and members, is designed to complement, not replace, the relationship between an individual and his/her own
physician.

All members of these forums are, by default, not considered to be licensed medical providers. If otherwise, users must clearly define themselves as such.

Forums members must behave at all times with respect and honesty. Posting guidelines, including time-out and banning policies, have been established by the moderators
of these forums. Click here for “Am I Infected?” posting guidelines. Click here for posting guidelines pertaining to all other POZ community forums.

We ask all forums members to provide references for health/medical/scientific information they provide, when it is not a personal experience being discussed. Please
provide hyperlinks with full URLs or full citations of published works not available via the Internet. Additionally, all forums members must post information which are
true and correct to their knowledge.

Finished Reading This? You can collapse this or any other box on this page by clicking the
symbol in each box.

Welcome to Am I Infected

Welcome to the "Am I Infected?" POZ forum.

New members -- those who have posted three or fewer messages -- are permitted to post questions and responses, free of charge (make them count!). Ongoing participation in the "Am I Infected?" forum -- posting more than three questions or responses -- requires a paid subscription.

A seven-day subscription is $9.99, a 30-day subscription is $14.99 and a 90-day subscription is $24.99.

Anyone who needs to post more than three messages in the "Am I Infected?" forum -- including past, present and future POZ Forums members -- will need to subscribe, with secure payments made via PayPal.

There will be no charge to continue reading threads in the "Am I Infected?" forum, nor will there be a charge for participating in any of the Main Forums; Meds, Mind, Body & Benefits; and Off Topic Forums. Similarly, all POZ pages, including our "HIV Transmission and Risks" and "Am I Infected? (A Guide to Testing for HIV)" basics, will remain accessible to all.

NOTE: HIV testing questions will still need to be posted in the "Am I Infected?" forum; attempts to post HIV symptoms or testing questions in any other forums will be considered violations of our rules of membership and subject to time-outs and permanent bans.

To learn how to upgrade your Forums account to participate beyond three posts in the "Am I Infected?" Forum, please click here.

Thank you for your understanding and future support of the best online support service for people living with, affected by and at risk for HIV.

Author
Topic: do i have it? please help! (Read 12871 times)

Dear folkslet me keep it short..i'm a 23 yr old guy frm india living in switzerland. Last year from the 8th of oct until 1oth of dec 2005 i visited sex parlours here in switzerland. i had totally 7 encounters of which 3 were just protected oral and the rest both oral & vaginal sex (same condom). The last time that i had insertive vaginal sex was on 9/12/2005. It was protected as far i knw, the condom didnt slip or break, but i continued for at least a minute even after ejaculating. i was alright until the 1st of jan 2006 ...after a heavy night of partying i got ill with chicken pox.( i got it from my roomies most of 'em had it during tht time). i was ok after tht for a while until i went ill once again in d mid of march 15/03/06.(almost 13 weeks after d incident) the first symptom was diarrhoea..n i checked 4 d reason wen i stumbled upon hiv...my heart started to panic..n i started looking 4 other symptoms...in a day r 2 i had a cold n fever..n two small swollen neck nodes..i started checkin my armpits n i found 1 swollen armpit gland the next day..it was a bit huge.( confirmed by a doc the next day).i experienced night sweats they were very severe, thn i was alright in a week..but thn i had swollen nodes under both my armpits..1 groin gland. i had muscle pain as well. i still have my swollen nodes but they r smaller than before.n exp night sweats nw n thn. i went for a pcr test and the doc said everythin was fine.(wbc, haemoglobin, etc)tis was in may. After a few months in august i got small swollen gland size of a small pea around my neck. they hurt me a bit..n they r very small. i fell ill once again by the end of august 2006 .i experienced night sweats was alrite 4 a while. i had white tongue like thrush on it..its gone nw..but my taste buds are a bit prominent than it used to be. i now gained 6 pounds during the vacation...pls answer my query at ur earliest convinence.1. Is there any chance that i got it2. today i caught a cold n felt a bit feverish now my right armpit node is again a bit swollen than before..

If you have persistent and troubling symptoms you should be discussing them with your doctor.

You weren't at risk for HIV in any of the incidents which you have reported. This is not an HIV situation. You're just pasting together a lot of unrelated bits and coming up with the wrong conclusion. Really.

i'm getting mouth sores or canker sores often,..i dunno why?..its freakin me..last time i had potato hips i got it..n it went of in 3 days..and again yesterday i had chips n i hav it rite frm yesterday's evening...pls help me its bothering me...n moreover i stopped pressing n feeling my armpit glands n they r fast becoming small....tell me how safe it is to use ne condom for 2 acts..ie. blow job followed by vaginal sex.

extremely sorry tht i'm back once again....but i forgot to tell you sumthn...during the last incident which my intuitions say as a bit risky..cuz even after ejaculating inside the condom..i kept continuing for a while..perhaps 2 to 3 minutes until my member was hard...wen i withdrew was kinda of soft and wet..could tht mean the condom might have broken?..cuz i experienced ars kinda symptoms exactly after 12 weeks...can it be hiv..cuz i suddenly started to panice seeing the canker sore ..i havnt got it b4..i got it once wen i had potato chips and mint..and again a few days back wen i had potato chips...pls reply

please answer me one more thing...do i warrant any testing..cuz i did a normal blood count, liver function, kidney function and CRP test 5 months after the incident and 2 months after the flu..i report was fine..now i'm much worried abt the swollen glands on my neck armpits and one on the groin..those under my armpits have grown smaller after i stopped pressing them, but still it hangs on its almost 9 since they appeared...and i had night sweats during the fever in march n when i had fever in august and i had night sweats occurring now and then frm march until september..i had never had night sweats before..

one last thing pls...i have had psoriasis..and since i experienced my ARs kinda symptoms 13 week after the incident..i've a doubt..will psoriasis affect my sero conversion..cuz after my chicken pox my psoriasis aggrevated and i got chicken pox approx 15 to 20 after the incident...

Greek, lets try another approach. You can't have a delayed seroconversion, you was never at risk. In order to seroconvert you have to be infected and you couldn't have been infected because you used a condom.

If you cannot put this behind you, why don't you just go test? Testing is the ONLY way to know your status 100%.

Anyone who is sexually active should be having a full sexual health care check-up, including but not limited to hiv testing, at least once a year and more often if unprotected intercourse occurs.

If you aren't already having regular, routine check-ups, now is the time to start. As long as you make sure condoms are being used for intercourse, you can fully expect your routine hiv tests to return with negative results. Don't forget to always get checked for all the other sexually transmitted infections as well, because they are MUCH easier to transmit than hiv.

Go test and collect your negative result so you can put this incident behind you. You weren't at risk when wearing a condom. If you have doubts anyway, then test.

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

Dear all,i'm back once again..sorry for that...my question is howsafe are condoms..i had ars like symptom after 13 weeks of my enounter,...and i'd always used the same condom for both oral sex and vaginal sex..is tht not a problem...pls reply

The consistant use of a condom and correctly used is 100% effective for the prevention of HIV. You don't get ARS at or after 13 weeks. You don't get ARS at five weeks. It's 2-4 after infection. This the second time you've asked the same question.

i'm sorry Rod...my doubt is..after the encounter in about 2 weeks i was down with chicken pox..and i had high fever during the period..so could it be the reason for my chicken pox..although it was from my roomie tht caught chicken pox..the time makes me to freak out

i'm extremely sorry...wht i mean to say is..wht if my ars occurred during the same period.. cuz i had fever when i had my chicken pox..and 10 weeks after my chicken pox i had flu..tht is when i developled swollen glands..afteri i started pushing my armpits to check if there was any.

now its going down..after 8 months cuz i dnt touch it anymore. so can i be sure that i didnt have any risk?.. this will be my last question ,i wud nt test your patience..sorry

Anyone who continues to post excessively, questioning a conclusive negative result or no-risk situation, will be subject to a four week Time Out (a temporary ban from the Forums). The purpose of a Time Out is to encourage you to seek the face-to-face help we cannot provide on this forum.

excuse me for being such a pain to you guys..please answer my question...do you recommend a test for me..

secondly, can hiv r other stds penetrate condoms...i had never experienced a broken condom..but had used the same condom for both oral and vaginal with ejaculation once at last..can oral sex make the condom less efficient. pls answer..

Anyone who is sexually active should be having a full sexual health care check-up, including but not limited to hiv testing, at least once a year and more often if unprotected intercourse occurs. If you've never had a full sexual health care check up, then go to your doctor or local Sexual Health Clinic and request full testing. As you've always had protected intercourse, don't be surprised when your results all come back negative. Test for your peace of mind and put this behind you.

Neither hiv nor other STIs will penetrate latex or polyurethane condoms. You did not have a risk for hiv infection during protected intercourse or during a blowjob, protected or not.

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

411

Greek, forget about HIV, you wore condoms, remember. Whenever those doubts creep back in just accept them for what they are, doubts. Facts are basic here, protected intercourse means that HIV isn't an issue here.

Try some breathing exercises the next time those dangerous thoughts emerge, either they'll disappear or you'll pass out from all that rapid, shallow breathing, either way you've avoided a repetitive post.....and reread your thread, nothing is going to change everytime another "what if" comes up.

sorry again...i freaked out reading baires posts...cuz i do have similar problems..i've swollen lymph nodes under both my armpits, my neck both sides and the supraclavicular region as him...and one in my groin..they r all small lik say 1 cm and <1cm but its spread across my body..can it sumthing to do with it...i got them after 3 my of my last exposure when i experienced fever duringthe evenings during march 2006..and in the supraclavicuar region i have small >1cm thick nodes since august 2006..please reply..am i still safe?

is psoriasis an auto immune disease...n can it act as an immuno suppressant? and can it delay ars symptoms to appear...and in a few websites they have mentioned ars symptoms can appear between 1 and 3 months ie even until 12 weeks..pls clarify..cuz need to knw if psoriasis could delay ars symptoms to appear..r in other words sero conversion to take place.

I don't know who you mean by "they" telling you to test even if a condom was used. Condoms provide very effective protection against HIV transmission. Testing is not necessary after a protected incident.

Perhaps the testing you are referring to is what we say about anyone who's sexually active ought to have a full STD panel done regularly since other STDs are much easier to catch.

And no, having chicken pox would not have affected ARS, but then you weren't at risk so ARS is not an issue for you. Really.

We only talk about "safer sex" here. Other than with your hand by yourself there is no such thing as 100% safe sex. Anyone who says otherwise is being inaccurate.

However, we know from decades of experience and much data that condoms provide very effective protection against HIV transmission and it's as close to 100% as anything is going to get.

As to this other twist you are tossing in now about chicken pox, you need to stop practicing medicine on yourself without a license. All of this is totally irrelevant because you weren't at risk to begin with. If you're just going to carry on indefinitely about this issue then get yourself tested at 13 weeks, collect the inevitable negative result and get on with your life. No kidding. This is all about mindgames you're having with yourself and this is NOT an HIV situation. Period.

And you're just heartbeats away from getting a four week time out. It's time for you to stop indulging yourself over this.